Visitor Ettiquette

Its before 7am on Sunday morning. I finally got a decent nights sleep last night. By decent I mean the now standard 2 hours following by a crashing headache – paracetamol barely touches it and doctors are reluctant to give you codeine cos of the other meds – so you pray for sleep instead. But after that hiatus today I had 5 hours sleep. This is sheer luxury. No screaming across the hall in the night; noone sticking me for blood every 4 hours; noone wanting my blood pressure and temp every 6; just sleep.

The physios don’t work on the weekend so I can’t get started on that which is now frustrating. However, since making a deal with the unit manager that he’d give me a wheelchair if I promised not to potter much and be pushed, once a day only, to starbucks, I can at least go outside when my friends arrive. Obviously I’m actually planning to go get delicious bacon soup at Carluccios – thus sticking vaguely to the 45 minute outing timetable but managing to avoid mushy frozen vegetables with microwaved something (sorry guys, you know it’s true!).

Without the physio to show me the way forward I’m doubly looking forward to seeing everyone today. Monica, Amanda, Zannah, my dad and Robin all due:

If you’re reading this cause someone you know stroked out – trust me, they want visitors. That said… one word of warning… they are in their pajamas so it’s really only polite you text and ask if you can visit first. They may put you off a few days; this probably isn’t because they don’t want to see you, it’s that they aren’t looking their best and either want a bit of space not have to think bother about that! But they still love that you asked. Phrasing request so they have an opt out is helpful!

If your trying to put of visitors I’ve found that “that would be great; can we talk about it next week when I’m less knackered?” works. I’ve found ignoring texts doesn’t always: people occasionally show up anyway (seriously!) so if you can’t be dealing with texts finding a friend to sit and respond on your phone for you – THANKS KATE! – works a treat.

Anyway, its 7.22 and soon people will wake up. Here we go again!

p.s. note to self: don’t try putting 3G dongle in laptop with the hand that doesn’t quite do as it should: it takes a loooong time, just use the other one instead!!